Development of a 1.0 T MR microscope using a Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet.

A compact 1.0 T MR microscope was developed using a permanent magnet made of high performance Nd-Fe-B magnetic material and a compact MRI console (54 cm (W) x 77 cm (H) x 60 cm (D), 80 kg weight). Since the magnetic field of the permanent magnet had a large temperature coefficient (-1200 ppm/deg), an internal NMR locking technique was developed for the imaging sequences. The performance of the system was evaluated using several biological specimens. As a result, good SNR 3D images at (50 microm)(3)-(200 microm)(3) voxel dimensions were obtained in practical imaging times (0.5-7.5 hours). Thus we have concluded that the permanent-magnet compact MR microscope has great promise as a research or analytical tool.